Tallgrass residents targets of crime last semester

Several residents of Tallgrass Apartments were victims of theft, larceny and other crimes last semester.

A resident reported a case of larceny on Sept. 24, according to crime logs released by the Mount Pleasant Police Department. The incident was followed by a man being arrested for illegally entering an apartment on Oct. 27, and officers investigating an assault complaint on Nov. 13.

In addition, there were four cases of theft from a motor vehicle between Dec. 1 and 4 at the Tallgrass Complex, 1240 E. Broomfield St.

Melissa Davis, a Tallgrass leasing agent, said she was familiar with an incident that took place around the beginning of December. She said she was surprised to hear of any cases of crime concerning the apartment complex.

“I only heard of one (incident),” Davis said. “We don’t hear about it very often here.”

Jeff Thompson, MPPD public information officer, said authorities have responded to 80 incidents at the Tallgrass Apartments since July 1, 2012. These incidents include parties, alcohol violations, accidents, cases of theft and assault.

While it is difficult to see trends in the incidents, Thompson did acknowledge the close string of motor vehicle thefts at the beginning of December.

“We did see four related occurrences of theft from autos at Tallgrass at the beginning of the month,” Thompson said, “but we believe the suspects responsible for those incidents are now in jail.”

Iron River senior Eric Stafford was a resident of Tallgrass Apartments during the 2012-13 school year, and attested to several minor incidents of crime in the area, with the majority being thefts during house parties.

“My friends and I had a couple little things stolen from our apartment during parties," Stafford said, "but nothing really valuable and we never had any issues with vandalism. Tallgrass was a great place to live honestly and its distance from campus, I think, helped keep vandalism and theft down.”

Other than minor thefts from apartment complexes, Stafford recalled an incident in which a couch was burned in the complex’s volleyball court.

Thompson said many incidents of theft, vandalism and other crime can be avoided by extra precautions on the part of citizens and residents. Most thefts from motor vehicles tend to occur when valuable items are left in plain sight for passersby.

“In addition to keeping their doors locked, (citizens) also need to remove valuables from their cars,” Thompson said. “All too often we hear that a house door was not locked because a roommate consistently forgets, they thought someone else was home (and) they don’t lock the doors because it is not convenient.”